On the tenth episode of the Molsan Method podcast, I speculate on the timeline before the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion (4:31).

 

 Molsan Method Podcast - Episode 10 [4:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (38)

Nothing gets me going like the talk of “welfare epics.” Thanks to Aspect of the Hare, we now have a new classification for gear: “soulless epics.” Pike talks about a soulless epic in his latest post:

“I am having a really hard time convincing myself to replace it with stuff that is being held in sterile confinement in Dalaran and that I earned by doing ‘chain Heroics’. I feel like there would be no soul in said gear.”

I find it hard to believe that World of Warcraft players in this day and age would refuse an upgrade — no matter how it was obtained — because it was not accompanied by a “story.” The fact that the gear you worked ever-so-hard for in 25-man Ulduar is obtainable from an emblem vendor doesn’t make it any less special. Why? Because there’s newer content to experience, and better gear to be had.

The Game has Changed

Today’s WoW is all about gear. You are judged completely by your various in-game ratings (item level, gear score, arena ranking, etc.) and nothing more. Having purple-colored items with as high a rating as possible is how you are judged.

The days of being a tank and having a Quel’Serrar are over. The days when you judged a Hunter based on whether or not they had Rhok’delar are long gone.

Those were the days when your gear helped craft the story of your character. In today’s WoW, achievements help tell the story of your character. You have to realize that gear is simply a means to an end. How you pick up the gear is irrelevant, and does not tell the entire story of your character or you as a player.

Stop it with the Welfare Epics

There’s no such thing as a welfare epic. Period. Just because gear is now available by different means doesn’t make it welfare.

“I don’t really have any moral problem with the way ‘welfare epics’ are implemented.”

I’ll restate this from my perspective: I don’t have any moral problem with how the various methods by which you can obtain gear in the game is implemented. Believe me: if you’re relying on a healer to keep you alive in the heroic version of Trial of the Champion, you don’t care how he or she picked up his or her healing set. The fact that his or her headpiece came from Emblems of Conquest and not Ulduar doesn’t mean they are any less of a player. It just means they utilized their time in a different way.

Time is Money, Friend

World of Warcraft is all about the time you put into the game. You spend your time as wisely as you can in order to maximize your enjoyment. It’s as simple as that. When time spent produces gear that helps you progress your character, you feel a sense of accomplishment. The progression of your character then opens up doors for new content, gear, experiences, and even “stories.” This is the never-ending incentive — the dangling carrot — that players have to keep progressing.

How and when your paper doll was decorated with purple pixelation is not something you should rely on to tell your story. Progressing your character, gaining achievements, and working with your fellow guild members speaks volumes.

Patch 3.2 is bringing us new content related to the Argent Tournament, badge changes, class changes, and new raptor pets. One additional change to WoW in the upcoming patch is the introduction of the new 40-player battleground: Isle of Conquest. It will have strategies and mechanics that you’ve seen before in Wintergrasp and Strand of the Ancients, along with a system of objectives similar to Alterac Valley.

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As a huge fan of Wintergrasp, and an old school fan of epic Alterac Valley matches, I can’t wait to try this out!

My new weekly poll is now up :

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I personally am looking forward to the change to heroic dungeons where bosses will be dropping Emblems of Conquest, and the daily heroic quest rewards will be yielding two Emblems of Triumph.

This won’t mean that I won’t want to raid, but it offers a nice alternative for those of us that did not burn through heroic dungeons when Wrath of the Lich King was released late last year.

This post is a response to a question that Fimlys posed on Twitter and his blog today:

Would you prefer 1 new Hero Class or 2 New Races?

Obviously I’m asking this in relation to the next expansion pack to WoW.

Although I’d prefer to create a couple of alts with new races and level them through their starting zones, I don’t think Blizzard will ever introduce new races again. They would rather cater to the existing, long-time player, and I don’t think the majority of players are all that interested in starting new characters.

However, I think there are two ways they could do this and make it work: introduce at least one new class to go along with the new races, or let those of us with a level 80 character create new high-level characters somewhere around level 60.

We’ve been playing WoW for years now and have been asking if we can start new characters at a higher level. With the level cap at 80, starting new characters at level 55 seems reasonable, especially since we can create level 55 Death Knights anywhere we want. If they raise the level cap to 90 in the next expansion, it would be great to have the ability to start new characters at level 65. I could then finally have a Hunter higher than level 30! Blizzard could also justify not having to create new starting zones for each race by just dropping them into Outlands or Northrend directly.

Creating a new class or two along with new character races would lure more players into rolling new characters and leveling them up beyond just the starting zones. They did this in Burning Crusade, when they introduced the Blood Elf and Draenei as playable races. They gave each faction a “new” class to play: Paladin for Horde and Shaman for Alliance. Hardcore players power-leveled their new race/class combination and were in high demand among raid groups. I believe this would work again, even if they forced players to start a new class at level 1.

While new races, classes, or even hero classes are likely, is this in Blizzard’s best interest right now? Sure, introducing new races and new classes would increase the lifespan of the game, and create another time-sink for players. With new technology, new MMOs on the horizon, and other Blizzard ventures coming soon, though, I think they’d rather shift as many WoW subscribers over to another Blizzard property instead of keeping the same WoW — at its core — alive for 5-10 more years.